Joe And Anthony Russo Among Latest Pilot Director Hires

The Emmy-winning team of Anthony and Joe Russohave come on board to direct Fox’s comedy pilot The Council of Dads, from writer-executive producer Peter Tolan and Sony Pictures TV. Last year, the Sony TV-based directors who won an Emmy for directing the pilot of Arrested Development, helmed 2 pilots, ABC’s Happy Endings and Fox’s Running Wilde, both of which got picked up to series. The Russos also directed the pilot for the NBC comedy series Community.

Feature director David Slade(Eclipse) is in negotiations to direct REM, Kyle Killen’s drama pilot for NBC and 20th described as an Inception-style thriller about a cop living in two different realities. This is the second consecutive pilot for Killen, who last year had Lone Star. Both attracted feature directors, Marc Webb and Slade, respectively, with both helmers making their pilot debuts.

Chris Koch, who directed the pilot for Fox’s midseaosn series Traffic Light, is on board to direct another single-camera comedy pilot, ABC’s Bad Mom, created by and co-starring British writer-actress-comedienne Sharon Horgan and produced by ABC Studios and Kapital Entertainment.

Veteran multicamera helmer Andy Ackerman has signed on to direct the ABC family comedy pilot Smothered, from Friends alums Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen. He is already attached to direct another half-hour pilot this season, I Hate My Teenage Daughter for Fox, and is eying a third, the Marisa Coughlan-penned Lost & Fount at ABC. All 3 are from Warner Bros. TV